Hampton wants to make city trial area for Google's ultra high-speed broadband network

Hampton

February 17, 2010|By By David Macaulay | 247-7838

HAMPTON — The city of Hampton will bid to take part in a Google trial intended to bring ultra high-speed broadband network to communities across the country.

Google announced plans last Wednesday to build experimental ultra high-speed broadband networks that would deliver to up to half a million Americans Internet speeds at 100 times faster than those in use today.

The Web search and advertising giant said the envisioned one-gigabit-per-second speed would allow people to stream 3-D medical imaging over the Web or download a high-definition, full-length movie in less than five minutes, the news service AFP reported.

Google's project is in line with President Barack Obama's pledge to bring broadband to every U.S. home as part of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan.

Hampton Mayor Molly Ward said Tuesday the city was interested in putting itself forward as a trial area.

"They are requesting communities compete to modernize their infrastructure. There are some parts of Hampton that aren't served with fiber optics," Ward said.

"It would put us on the map with regard to being a center of technology," she said. "We have so many assets here with the military, NASA ... it's a diverse community and might be an interesting place for them to explore a relationship with us."

Google product managers Minnie Ingersoll and James Kelly said Google is planning to "build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations" in the United States, AFP reported.

"We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with one gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections," they said in a blog post.

Google has invited communities around the country that wanted to take part in the high-speed broadband trial to make their interest known by March 26 and said the target communities would be announced later this year.

John Eagle, an assistant Hampton city manager, said the city will present its application by the March 26 deadline.

"The possibilities for this are enormous and we are very excited about it," he said.

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